Ndubuisi Ugah with agency report
29 June 2008
Lagos — United States President, Mr. George W. Bush, has ordered tougher sanctions against the Zimbabwean government headed by Mr. Robert Mugabe for "the regime's blatant disregard for the Zimbabwean people's democratic will and human rights".
The hard slam from the American government is coming as Mugabe is to be sworn in as Zimbabwe's president today, following his victory in a run-off election boycotted by the opposition candidate, Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai.
Bush, in a directive to his top aides including secretaries of state and the treasury, said the US was compiling sanctions and would also champion international campaign for sanctions against the administration, including an arms embargo.
He said the move was in response to "the Mugabe regime's blatant disregard for the Zimbabwean people's democratic will and human rights".
Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula has said sanctions against Zimbabwe are unlikely to work, and that Mugabe and the opposition should instead be encouraged to talk.
He was speaking at a meeting of African Union foreign ministers in the Egyptian town of Sharm el-Sheik, before a full meeting of heads of state tomorrow, which Mugabe is expected to attend.
Wetangula, whose own country recently went through a period of political violence before a power-sharing deal was brokered, told reporters: "History has shown us that they (sanctions) don't work because the leadership just dig in and dig in and feel persecuted.
"I think we need to engage Zimbabwe. The route of sanctions may not be the helpful one... the first and most important thing is for the people of Zimbabwe and their leadership to sit down and talk to each other, instead of talking at each other."
On Friday, the UN Security Council said it deeply regretted Zimbabwe's decision to go ahead with the presidential poll.
It said conditions for a free and fair election did not exist, but - after objections from South Africa - stopped short of saying it was illegitimate.
Mugabe came second to Tsvangirai in the first round of the presidential vote in March.
Since then, the MDC says some 86 of its supporters have been killed and 200,000 forced from their homes by militias loyal to Zanu-PF.
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Encouraging Mugabe to talk to the MDC is a big mistake. Has everyone forgotten what happened to Joshua Nkomo in the 80s? Mugabe promised to "talk" to Nkomo and work towards "unity" and what happened? Mugabe, who had promised to "talk" to Nkomo then stated: "ZAPU and its leader, Dr. Joshua Nkomo, are like a cobra in a house. The only way to deal effectively with a snake is to strike and destroy its head." Mugabe then unleashed the Fifth Brigade upon Nkomo's Matabeleland homeland in Operation Gukurahundi, killing more than 20,000 Ndebele civilians in an attempt to destroy ZAPU and create a one-party state.
Talk to Mugabe? Better be prepared to run for your life and have your neighbors killed.